To Repair The Damage Done in NSA Blowup, Start With Clapper

With the conviction of Bradley Manning and asylum
granted to Edward Snowden in Russia, it may be time to turn attention away from
the controversy over their actions and toward the government—specifically, the
intelligence community. Whatever ultimate judgment is leveled on Manning’s or
Snowden’s actions, they have raised real questions about the ways that the
United States gathers, uses and classifies information.

The first order of business is to restore a
semblance of democratic order within the government itself. Somehow amid the
hunt for Snowden and the trial of Manning, the misconduct of James Clapper, the
director of national intelligence, has seemingly been excused. But if the
actions of Manning and Snowden required prosecution, then what Clapper did
deserves investigation and censure at the very least.

Testifying on surveillance by the National Security
Agency last March, Clapper appeared at a Senate committee hearing where Sen.
Ron Wyden asked: “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or
hundreds of millions of Americans?”

“No, sir,” Clapper replied. The he added: “Not
wittingly.”

Not only was that response false, but the nation’s
highest-ranking intelligence official gave that false answer in public, with
ample warning from Wyden that he would be asked about that sensitive issue.
Rather than speaking truthfully about the collection of telecom “metadata”—or
even deflecting the question—Clapper lied. By doing so he aroused even greater
anger and suspicion about the government’s motives when the lie was exposed,
although the outlines of the NSA domestic surveillance program have been known
for several years.

Obama Should Ask for His Resignation

As Sen. Wyden recently told The National Memo, Clapper was repeating the same misleading
reassurances about widespread surveillance offered in other public remarks,
which disturbed Wyden—who knew better already. And of course Clapper knew that
Wyden and other senators were aware of the NSA’s collection programs, which
only made his behavior more brazen. By attempting to implicate the Senate in an
ongoing attempt to mislead the American people, he mocked the concept of
legislative oversight—the only real check against intelligence abuses.

Clapper’s false testimony echoed some of the worst
trespasses against democratic governance of the previous administration. While
it is wrong to say that the Obama administration is just as arrogant and
authoritarian as was the Bush (and Cheney) regime, that moment in the Capitol
encouraged those unflattering comparisons. It violated President Obama’s
promises of integrity and transparency, and his oath to uphold the
Constitution.

A respected nonpartisan watchdog outfit, Citizens
for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is urging the Justice Department
to open a criminal investigation of Clapper. That isn’t a bad idea, although
the Senate itself also ought to perform its own probe when a ranking official
it has confirmed does what Clapper did. As for the president, he might regain
some of the public confidence forfeited on this issue—as well as some of the
international prestige lost in the NSA blowup—if he simply asked Clapper to
resign.

None of this is meant to exonerate the damaging acts
and poor judgment of the two leakers targeted by the government for espionage.
Manning in particular has harmed innocent people around the world with his
indiscriminate exposure of thousands of diplomatic cables. His subsequent
mistreatment by the Army was a disgrace, but he—and his dubious sponsors at
WikiLeaks—did no favors to the cause they supposedly wanted to advance.

Nor is it to say that American officials don’t need
to keep secrets and conduct covert operations, which may well include lawful,
circumscribed surveillance of American citizens. That will only be tolerated,
however, within the system of congressional oversight established four decades
ago, after the historic Church committee hearings revealed rampant CIA abuses
and crimes.

Now Manning has been punished and Snowden exiled.
But the damage done at the very core of democracy has not begun to be repaired.

Poll

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